• Hemeroteca Regulators and US states denounce Facebook and ask to separate it from WhatsApp and Instagram

A judge in the United States on Monday rejected the two complaints filed against Facebook for alleged practices contrary to free competition, which gives the company reason in the demands of the Government and a coalition formed by several states.

In his brief,

Judge James Boasberg considered that the Government's lawsuit did not have a strong enough case

to accuse the social network company of abusing its power in the market, contrary to what is established by law.

The complaining party now has thirty days to modify the claim and resubmit it to the judge if it deems it pertinent.

Last December, both the Executive then led by Donald Trump, through the

Federal Trade

Commission (FTC, for its acronym in English), and a

coalition made up of 46 states,

both Democrats and Republicans, formally accused Facebook of violating the antitrust laws.

A few months later, in March, the company headed by Mark Zuckerberg asked the Washington court judge to dismiss the lawsuits, claiming that they ignored "completely the reality of the dynamic and highly competitive technology industry in which Facebook operates." .

At the center of the accusations is the

acquisition by the company of its hitherto rivals Instagram and WhatsApp

, in 2012 and 2014 respectively, and the complaints requested that Facebook be forced to dispose of them, despite the fact that at the time both operations received the go-ahead from regulators.

In its March briefs, the Menlo Park (California) firm recriminated precisely the plaintiffs who wanted to force the undoing of

two acquisitions that had previously been approved,

something for which, according to Facebook, there is no precedent.

In the specific case of the complaint filed by the coalition of states, Judge Boasberg justified his decision precisely because the events that were reported (the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp) occurred 9 and 7 years ago respectively, but the states had not reported it. up to now.

Apart from Facebook, another internet giant,

Google

, is also litigating in the US courts three different lawsuits for alleged monopolistic practices (one presented by the Government and the other two, by different coalitions of states).

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  • Facebook

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  • Instagram

  • Google

  • Mark Zuckerberg

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  • USA

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